At a time when oil companies are raking in record profits, Chicago consumers are paying, on average, $2.98 per gallon, 68 cents a gallon more than they were a year ago today. Last year, the top five oil companies reported net profits of over $110 billion -- which is equivalent to $1,000 for every household in America. These companies also just announced first quarter profits -- up 50 percent from 2004.

“When ExxonMobil and other oil giants reap billions of dollars of profits at the expense of American families, small businesses and farmers, it's time for Congress to step up,” Durbin said.

“Continued reliance on foreign sources of oil, in a world with increasing competition for those limited resources, is a dangerous future for America. We need to reduce our dependence, first by increasing the fuel economy of our cars. It’s a solution I’ve been advocating for years,” said Durbin.

Last year, for the third time in a matter of four years, Durbin proposed setting a new ambitious and attainable fuel efficiency standard of 40 miles per gallon by 2015 for cars and certain light trucks, including sport utility vehicles (SUV's). The bill, often referred to as CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy), is designed to get the United States back on track toward a cleaner, more efficient and less oil-dependent energy future.

“In the long term, we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Consumers need to demand more and better fuel efficient vehicles. The fight for CAFE standards legislation has spanned more than a decade. It’s the right thing to do and the momentum for real reform is building. I’m going to keep working for improved fuel economy standards as an essential component of an energy independence plan," Durbin said.

“If the U.S. had increased the fuel economy of all cars sold in America ten years ago by only five miles per gallon, today we would be using more than 1 million fewer barrels of oil per day -- saving $33 billion annually in the U.S. economy and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming,” Durbin said.

Increasing fuel economy will save money -- and this money will translate into new jobs and economic growth in other sectors of the economy. A study by the Environmental Law and Policy Center concluded that at $3 per gallon, cars and trucks that average 30% better MPG would save Illinoisans $3.6 billion on gasoline costs annually.

Durbin said that the average fuel economy of our nation's cars and trucks has steadily declined since 1985 when the last fuel efficiency requirements ended. In 1975, when American cars were averaging 14 miles a gallon, Congress passed the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) law, which required manufacturers to double the fuel economy of their vehicles to nearly 28 miles a gallon in 10 years.

Durbin noted that many of the same arguments against new fuel efficiency standards – more expensive cars, impossible technical hurdles, loss of car making jobs – were raised back in 1975. "I believe the auto industry and its engineers can meet this challenge. We made great strides toward energy efficiency more than 25 years ago when the first fuel efficiency standards became law. Detroit made safer cars with better technology. I believe they can do it again now," said Durbin.

Durbin also supports a series of other short and long-term measures to help consumer cope with rising gas prices.

He has called for Congressional action on his legislation to help channel record oil company profits back to American families. Durbin’s Windfall Profits Reinvestment bill would take 50 percent of the integrated oil and gas companies windfall profits (those over a baseline price of $40 per barrel of oil) and use the revenue to fund a consumer rebate, provide additional resources to fully fund the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, provide for a manufacturers incentive to improve the fuel economy of automobiles and provide additional revenue to the Highway Trust Fund to improve roadways and mass transit.

The Senator supports Congressional efforts to determine whether the practices, including the consolidation through mergers and acquisitions, within the oil and gas industry violate current laws. Durbin is an original co-sponsor of the Oil and Gas Industry Antitrust Act of 2006, which would make it illegal for oil giants to choke supplies in order to drive up prices at the pump. The bill would give the federal government additional tools to clamp down on oil companies that manipulate the market by unilaterally withholding supplies to increase prices or create shortages.

Durbin said that the bill would also empower the federal government to prosecute foreign energy cartels, like OPEC, that act illegally under American antitrust laws in collusion to limit production or set prices. The bill would also update various antitrust laws to require enhanced scrutiny and tough restrictions on petroleum industry mergers. The Oil and Gas Industry Antitrust Act of 2006 was approved by the Judiciary Committee, of which Durbin is a member, this week and now awaits action by the full Senate.